[Indiefab]

I just bought this off Ebay. Couldn't pass up the price.

https://cgi.ebay.com/UNITE-CARBON-RISER-HANDLEBAR-STEM-BAR-INTEGRATED-RISE_W0QQitemZ160076714560QQihZ006QQcategoryZ56194QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem

I'll give it a careful inspection before I install it, but there's no way to look inside a carbon bar to tell it's strength. I do only XC riding and racing with a 100mm travel Reba. No drops but I'm 200# plus gear.

Has anyone ever heard of this brand? I've found nothing on the internet. I assume it's a rebranded Taiwanese bar - it looks identical to a bar from 4ZA called the Vampyr.
Is 10 N-m a common torque setting for installing a carbon stem? That would convert to about 30 lb-ft.

 

[c-dale 900 man]

weight?

Well, at 3305 grams, it weighs almost 10 times more than any normal bar/stem combo. Just to let you know.:thumbsup:

 

[Bender]

Looks just like the tokoen bar/stem combo http://www.tokenproducts.com/2005/05htm/products.php?pc1id=13 It should be pleanty durbale for you. The weight isnt terrible but is by no means super light. The look is killer though.

 

[DeeEight]

Wasn't Toby Henderson's THE Industries marketing that thing also last year? I remember a brief writeup in MBA about it and them saying Toby was testing it for DH riding.

 

[Indiefab]

Well, at 3305 grams, it weighs almost 10 times more than any normal bar/stem combo. Just to let you know.:thumbsup:

That's a typo, of course. On my auction it said 335g. That will save ~ 200g over my current setup which is a huge On-One Mary bar (which I have grown to love, after a few crashes while getting used to the weird hand position) and a 110mm Avid SAAGO stem. I'll drop a few more grams by trying bar tape instead of Lock-On grips.

Token, huh? Cool. At least I recognize that name. You're right, it looks identical. It is a rebranded bar, like I thought. I figured it was pretty decent quality since Taiwan is turning out some really nice stuff these days.

Anybody using the Token or Vampyr bars?

 

[Indiefab]

Here's the T.H.E. bar. Dang, it looks really similar. But the claimed weights are off and this has a matte finish, where the Unite bar has exposed carbon weave top layer with a glossy clearcoat. I'll post a pic on the digital scale when it arrives.

 

[Indiefab]

Check out what arrived from China...

It's too beautiful to put on my ugly, dirt-covered bike.

here it is modeled by the 2 year-old

4 day shipping from Shanghai, China. That's impressive.
The ends have crush-proof aluminum liners glued inside.
The bolts feel heavier than Ti, but have a "T" stamped inside the head. Any idea what this means? They are 4mm hex bolts and weigh ~4.5g each.

Goodbye SAAGO collet-style stem. Now where did that King top cap go? I'll have to get one of those cool top caps that says something so I'll have something to read while I ride. I'm used to just staring at the 3 bolts on top of the SAAGO.

Tomorrow its off to Sears for a small torque wrench.
Ride review to come.

 

[Serenity Now]

Just a word of warning. A German magazine recently did a test on carbon bars and these did very poorly if I remember rightly. They failed the fatigue test quite early, the only carbon bar to fail completely. I seem to remember they test 3 bars from each brand and all three broke. Maybe someone has a scan of the article.

A friend of mine the the T.H.E. version of these but complained that the sweep of the bars was in the wrong direction for him and of course he couldn't rotate the bars to rectify the problem.

Still, they look pretty pimp, which is why he bought them. I hope you enjoy them.

 

[DeeEight]

The german fatigue and strength testing standards are different than what an american manufacturer would tend to test for as memory serves.

 

[Some Guy]

100% failure rate is pretty scarey though, even if the sample size is small. It'd be good if we could see the test results and how the bars were tested.

 

[Indiefab]

Here's an update with pictures.
I've managed to get in a couple hours of riding between rain and snow storms. The bar feels great and has nice vibration absorption. I was using a set of ODI Ruffian Lock-on grips but I'm going to try some bar wrap for a while. Enjoy.

 

[Davide]

You should be fine

At 343 grams it is heavier the many normal set ups (e.g. Monkeylight+ Thomson stem weight the same) and people are using much lighter set ups :eekster: ... yours should be strong enough :skep:

 

[fourtyounce]

The combo looks great with that frame. Nice bike! 8 or 9 speed?

 

[holden]

option: i recently discovered that calfee also does mountain combo stem/bars in carbon ... http://www.calfeedesign.com/barstem.htm

 

[Indiefab]

https://www.calfeedesign.com/barstem.htm

Another must-have part to add to the "When I win the lottery" list.
Calfee= crazy, ground-breaking stuff that you wish you'd thought of. Love seeing their stuff at the Handmade Bike Show.

As far as my budget-build bike that I'm trying to lighten up, it's a 1x9 with an X.0 rear upgraded with carbon pulleys, a 990 11-34 cassette and a Wippermann 9x1 stainless chain. Here's a pic before I removed about 2# with the bar/stem and new wheels and tires.
This spring I'm planning to change to a much lighter SDG I-Beam saddle and seatpost, once the 400mm length post comes out.

 

[B_Aero]

Light

Looks good, but at 335g, has a lot of room for improvement.

Syntace 99 right at 100g and Easton EC90 right at 99g = under 200g. Makes the front end really light.